Vacation In Colorado
by HockeyNut21
Summary: Set in the future. Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda and Ethan go on a trip to Colorado. They go skiing, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains, but what happens when their trip takes some unexpected and frightening turns? Rating is for later and may change.
1. Let's Go To Colorado

Disclaimer: I don't own Lizzie McGuire or any of the characters you see on the show. The only character I own, so far, is Charley.  
  
Summary: Set in the future. Lizzie and her friends are 23 and Matt(only a brief appearance) is 20. Lizzie and Gordo are dating and Miranda is dating Ethan. Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda and Ethan go on a trip to Colorado. They go skiing, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains. What happens when their trip takes some unexpected and frightening turns? Story in Lizzie's POV  
  
Chapter 1: Let's Go To Colorado  
  
I woke up early one morning to watch the sunrise from my bedroom window. It would have been romantic with my boyfriend, but had been out of town until late the last night. My dog Charley, a German Shepherd, was sleeping happily on the foot my bed. He was rather comical was he was deeply asleep. He was flopped over on his back with his feet sticking up in the air. Occasionally, his legs twitched like he was running in his dream.   
  
I got up and got dressed so that I could cook breakfast. I fed Charley and started my own breakfast. I cooked bacon, eggs and sausage. My boyfriend, Gordo, was coming over to have breakfast with me. I tossed some bread in the toaster and grabbed the carton of milk. Just as the food was done cooking, my doorbell rang.  
  
"Wow, it smells good in here, Lizzie," Gordo complimented," I'm hungry."  
  
"Well, good. I cooked you plenty of food," I told him.  
  
"I love your cooking, honey," he kissed me.  
  
"Don't thank me. My mom is the one who taught me to cook. Without her, we would starve," I joked.   
  
"Remind me to thank her sometime," Gordo said.  
  
We were interrupted by the phone. I jumped up to answer it and saw that the caller ID said it was Miranda.  
  
"Hey Lizzie," Miranda started," what's up?"  
  
"Hey Randa. Gordo's over and we're having breakfast," I explained.  
  
"Ooh. Did someone get some action last night?" Miranda kidded.  
  
"No!" I exclaimed,turning red," he was out of town and he just got here."  
  
Gordo smiled at Lizzie, guessing what Miranda had hinted at without even hearing it.  
  
"Well, I was just calling to remind you that our trip is this Friday," Miranda said.   
  
"I know. I'm so excited to go to Colorado. I've never been skiing," I told her.   
  
"This will be awesome. Just us and Gordo and Ethan. We are gonna have so much fun," Miranda sounded excited," but anyway, I'll let you go so you and Gordo can 'eat breakfast'!"  
  
"Ran-da!" I yelled as she hung up.  
  
"What was that about?" Gordo inquired.  
  
"Miranda seems to think that we are 'getting some action'. I already told her you weren't in town last night, but she still thinks we were sleeping together."  
  
"Other than that, what did she want?"   
  
"Just to remind us of the trip on Friday."  
  
When we finished breakfast, I gave the last of the sausage to Charley who waited patiently under the table. Then I decided we should take Charley to the park. Gordo went and grabbed his leash and the second he saw it, he went nuts. He ran around the house in circles and barked. He wouldn't let us get his leash on. Finally we caught him, but we were laughing so hard, he got away. We caught him again and he dragged us down the street to the park. We let him lose and sniffed every single tree and bush in sight. Gordo and I sat on a bench and watched as Charley tried to chase a squirrel up a tree.   
  
Gordo put his arm around me and we started to slowly kiss. He ran his hands up and down my back and I got that electrified feeling that I only got when he was touching me. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed back. Before we could get very far, Charley jumped up on Gordo. We laughed and took him back to my house.   
  
On Friday morning, my younger brother, Matt came over to my house.  
  
"Hi Matt," I greeted him.  
  
"Hello Lizzie. How have you been?" he asked.  
  
"Good. How's college been?" I inquired.  
  
"Great. Melina's been on my case about my grades, so they've gone way up," he explained.  
  
"I can't believe you're still with her," Lizzie smiled," and how's Lanny?"  
  
"The same. How are Gordo and Miranda?"  
  
"They're both excited. They should be here soon, in fact. I really appreciate that you're taking Charley to your place while I'm gone. I don't think he'd like being alone for a couple weeks," I told him.  
  
"No problem. I love Charley. He's such a good dog," Matt said as Charley licked his face," I hate to just take him and run, but I have to get going."  
  
"Okay, thanks again Matt," I said as he left.  
  
A few minutes later, Ethan drove up to my house with Miranda. Gordo showed up right behind them. We loaded all of our baggage into the back of Ethan's truck and headed to the airport. Our flight landed at Denver International Airport at three o'clock in the afternoon. We rented a couple cars and started the long drive to the Rocky Mountains.   
  
Miranda and Ethan had planned most of the trip and rented a cabin for us. Ethan had been rather successful in life and became a famous actor, so the whole trip was on him. Gordo was a director, but not bigtime, yet. Miranda and I were working little jobs for the time being, but we wanted to start our line of clothing. We sort of wanted to hold a joint wedding one day. Gordo and Ethan were planning to propose to us soon, but we didn't know exactly when.  
  
At 7 PM, we finally found our cabin, several miles outside of Vail. We lugged all of our stuff into the cabin and were taken with its beauty. It was a cute, rustic cabin with a fireplace included. Miranda and Ethan took the bedroom downstairs and Gordo took the one upstairs. There were two small beds and we pushed them together. The upper floor of the cabin was open in the center overlooking the lower floor. The rooms were wrapped around the edge and there was a big, beautiful deck outside our room.  
  
After exploring the cabin, we all met in the living room, where the fireplace was.  
  
"Well, it's a little late to go anywhere tonight," Ethan said.  
  
"Yeah, but we should go skiing tomorrow," Gordo suggested.  
  
"Definitely," Miranda and I said at the same time.  
  
"It's creepy how you two say stuff at the same time like that," Ethan told us.  
  
"It's not on purpose," I said.  
  
"It just happens," Miranda put in.  
  
"Anyway, I'm pretty tired from the long trip," Ethan said.  
  
"Me too," Gordo agreed.  
  
"Okay, then let's all head off to bed. I don't think we should set any specific time to get up the morning. When we all wake up, we can head out," I said.  
  
The next morning, we woke up at about seven o'clock. We had all been very tired from the trip. No one had stayed awake later than 9PM. All of us felt rested and refreshed so we gathered up the ski gear, that Ethan had so kindly purchased for us all yesterday. After a quick breakfast of toast and cereal, we got into one car and headed back toward Vail to ski.  
  
At Vail Mountain, we got our all-day lift tickets and jumped on the ski lift.  
  
"Gordo, I'm not sure about this," I said, on the way up.  
  
"I know heights bother you, but this will be fun. I won't leave you until you're comfortable with it," Gordo told me.  
  
"Okay. I trust you," I told him.  
  
I was getting very nervous and Gordo had to pull me off the ski-lift. I fell to the ground and couldn't stand up.  
  
"I hate these stupid skis. How am I supposed to stand up with them on my feet?" I fumed.  
  
"Calm down Lizzie. This is supposed to be fun, remember?" Miranda said as she pulled me to my feet.  
  
"Okay. Sorry. I'm gonna have fun," I said.  
  
Gordo held my hand and skied backwards for a few feet. Once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed myself. As soon as we hit the bottom of the mountain I was ready to go right back up. Everyone kept saying, "See it wasn't so bad." I agreed and got in line for the nearest lift. After a few runs, we challenged eachother to a race. Miranda won, beating us all to the bottom. We spent all of the afternoon skiing and then headed for the car.  
  
"So, did everyone have fun?" Ethan asked.  
  
"It was amazing," I replied.  
  
"I enjoyed myself," Gordo told us.  
  
"I loved it," Miranda proclaimed.  
  
"Good. Who wants to go out to dinner?" Ethan asked us.  
  
All of us said 'me' at once. We found a little restaurant in Vail and ate a quick dinner. Then we went back to the cabin and started a fire in the fireplace. We sat around and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. The weather at the cabin was not as cool as Vail, where the temperature was in the 40s. The temperature at the cabin was about 50 degrees and not too bad for Colorado in spring. We listened to the news on the radio because there was no TV in the cabin.  
  
A/N: The dog, Charley is basically my own dog, Mr. Spock. Yes, my dog's named for a Star Trek character. I didn't pick the name and don't particularly like it, but I can't change it. Lizzie's skiing experience is based on my own. I went once when I was about nine years old. I absolutely could not stand up with skis on my feet. Fortunately, I didn't fall down that much. I hope you enjoy this story. Please R&R. 


	2. Hiking, Grand Lake, and an Old Bridge

Disclaimer: I don't own Lizzie McGuire or any of the characters you see on the show. The only character I own, so far, is Charley.  
  
Summary: Set in the future. Lizzie and her friends are 23 and Matt(only a brief appearance) is 20. Lizzie and Gordo are dating and Miranda is dating Ethan. Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda and Ethan go on a trip to Colorado. They go skiing, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains. What happens when their trip takes some unexpected and frightening turns? Story in Lizzie's POV  
  
Chapter 2: Hiking, Grand Lake, and An Old Bridge  
  
The next morning we all woke up at about ten o'clock. Skiing had worn all of us out. I usually hated sleeping late because it wasted the day, but this time I didn't mind. After breakfast, we sat in the living room trying to make plans for the day.  
  
"I would really like to go on a hike," Gordo said.  
  
"Me too," I agreed," the scenery around here is so beautiful. A hike would be a great way to see it up close."  
  
"I was thinking about going in to Rocky Mountain National Park or something," Miranda told us.  
  
"Ooh. We could go to this place called Grand Lake. In the summer there's tons of water skiing and stuff and there's supposed to be a really good hamburger restaurant in the town. It's too cold for water skiing, but there are still boat rides and stuff to do," Ethan explained.  
  
"I don't know. I think I want to hike around here. Didn't the guy you rented this place from say that there's no one else around for miles?" Gordo asked.  
  
"Yeah. The nearest neighbor is eight miles away," Ethan said.  
  
"I'm with Gordo. I wanna hike around here. There's probably lots of people around the National Park," I told them.  
  
"Okay. We can split up for the day," Miranda said," no one said we have to stay together. You guys can hike and we can go to Grand Lake."  
  
"Sounds good to me," Ethan agreed.  
  
"Lizzie and I can take the tent we brought and camp out overnight. It wasn't too cold last night and it's supposed the same way tonight. We got lucky and the weather's been nice here," Gordo said.  
  
"Well then, I guess Gordo and I will go pack and we'll see you guys tomorrow sometime," I finished.  
  
Gordo and I each packed up a hiking backpack with food, clothes and other supplies. Gordo offered to carry the tent and I carried a picnic lunch for the afternoon. We each grabbed an extra bottle of water and set off on the trail that led into the woods behind the cabin. We hiked until we both hungry for lunch. We got lucky and found an old picnic table where we could stop and eat our lunch.  
  
While we ate, Miranda and Ethan arrived in Granby and ate at a hamburger restaurant. Then they parked their car at Grand Lake and found the boat Ethan had called ahead and reserved. The lake was mostly empty because the temperature was only about 49 degrees. There were the occasional local fishers who politely nodded at the couple. Ethan paddled the boat out towards a secluded spot on the lake while Miranda relaxed. Unbeknownst to her, he planned to propose to her once they were alone. She was shocked by his proposal, but immediately said yes. She couldn't wait to get back and tell me that she was getting married.  
  
After Gordo and I finished our picnic, we hiked further up the trail and began to look for a good site to pitch the tent. We came across a beautiful canyon complete with a waterfall. We sat down on a log to enjoy the view.  
  
"Gordo?" I asked.  
  
"What is it dear?" he replied.  
  
"Have you ever pitched a tent before?"  
  
"Um. Once, I think. Why?"  
  
"Are we gonna be able to set up our tent tonight?" I inquired.  
  
"Don't worry. It's one where you just pull a cord and it pops up, all you have to do is snap the poles into place. I'm sure it's simple," he assured me.   
  
"Good. I sure don't know how to pitch a tent," I told him.  
  
He laughed at me and then stopped in his tracks.  
  
I nearly ran into him," What did ya stop for?"  
  
"Look at that bridge," he pointed ahead.  
  
The trail led right to an old rope bridge. It was ropes running across with boards on it to walk on. It looked like something you would see in a movie where the characters were in the jungle. The kind of bridge that looked really old and unstable.  
  
"Do we have to cross here?" I asked.  
  
"Well, this is where the trail leads and we really should not go too far off the trail. And there's nowhere on this side to put our tent up. Come on, I'll go first to make sure it's safe for you," he said.  
  
"All right. I guess if this the only way across, I'll go."  
  
"Okay. Let me get all the way across first. We don't want to overload something that looks as old as this," he started across.   
  
The bridge was about ten or fifteen feet above a creek that looked to be pretty full. I prayed that Gordo and I both would make it across safely. Gordo made his way slowly across the bridge testing the planks for sturdiness. He made it to the other side and dropped his backpack to the ground. He beckoned for me to start across the bridge. I stepped gingerly onto the first plank and when it didn't move, I kept going. The worst part was looking down. I had to watch my feet as I crossed and it was making me nervous. Once I reached the halfway point, however, my confidence was building.   
  
Out of nowhere, the planks under my feet snapped in half. I let out a scream and barely grabbed the support rope in time to keep from falling in the water. Gordo was running across the bridge to help me in a flash, but the added weight was too much. The entire bridge let loose, sending us both into the icy cold water. I found the bottom of the river and pushed myself to the surface. I took in a fresh breath of air and scanned the water for Gordo. I searched all the way around and couldn't see Gordo anywhere. I began to panic, fearing he was trapped under the water somewhere. 


End file.
